He spent most of his professional life as Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Naples. He was trained in jurisprudence, but read widely in Classics, philology, and philosophy, all of which informed his highly original views on history, historiography, and culture. His thought is most fully expressed in his mature work, the Scienzia Nuova or The New Science. In his own time, Vico was relatively unknown, but from the nineteenth century onwards his views found a wider audience and today his influence is widespread in the humanities and social sciences.
Definition of Rhetoric
The role of eloquence is to persuade; an orator is persuasive when he calls forth in his hearers the mood which he desires.
What is eloquence by wisdom ornately and copiously delivered in words appropriate to the common opinion of all mankind?
Persuasion may occur through the following formula:
Corporeal images --> Love --> Belief --> Passion --> Breaking the will
Reader Notes
With Vico classical tradition ends – last gasp of classical rhetoric against Cartesianism
Study Methods is another De Ratione – just like Erasmus, defending rhetoric against Descartes. Talking about educational system bases on Cartesian methodology – clear and distinct, grammar and logic
Finding principles that could stand up to Descartes and found the in common topics and metaphor.
Common Sense – sensus communis – how the community makes sense of itself, shared values and beliefs enshrined in institutions – the epidoxa at the bottom of a society’s language
The community cannot exist with out sensus communis – sensus communis is community, not individual. For Descartes we have individual bon sens
For Vico noticing similarities and making connections (metaphor, ligamen) is essential – his whole thrust is connection – seeing connections inside the fabric of language and institutions.
Vico – you can’t put Cartesian methodology to practice in LIFE – life decisions are often about similarities, judgment based on probabilities. Topics establish probabilities and every day probabilities are in sensus communis.
Rhetoric is to be involved with civic, humanist, politics. Descartes functioning alone/ individual.
Vico was not having a theoretical conversation – he was defending his job and the Cartesian influence in the university and in the courts in Naples – attempt to bring Naples to heel (going to court in Naples was a tourist attraction – no written laws, just who was most eloquent lawyer). He succeeded – Cartesian education did not come in until 1740’s.
Sensus Communis is both the standard of judgment AND the standard of eloquence –important combination of eloquence and prudence – speech and action.
Descartes vs. Vico
Descartes
Methodic Doubt (I don’t believe anything is true, no probability)
Geometric Logic – step by step, simple to complex
Scholars of Descarte argue over “simple idea” – is “a=a” an idea or a tautology
No metaphor – saying something “is” another is impossible – metaphor is at best decoration (unnecessary) and at worst a lie
Anything you say with metaphor you can say without it
this is whole point of Franco-Italian debate
Vico
Topics are about probabilities – ways to get probable statements
Metaphor – opposite of a step by step system, a jump, a predication of being – a statement using is
Metaphor is compressed syllogism – writer/orator leaves out connecting term – hearer/reader supplies the connection – audience feels smart – remarkable persuasive because hearer/reader figures it out – depends on common fund of knowledge – not just epidoxa – a mix of sensus communis and educated humanist tradition
Some metaphors say things you cannot possible say without the metaphor
Process for deciding which arguments – which are most probable, which will audience believe
Rhetoric becomes composition but always maintains an oral performance fiction
Periodic literature written like “conversations”- epistolary novels
Classical Rhetoric now fragments into different genres. The speech becomes other genres:
Sermons (big sellers)
Storytelling
Letter writing
Scientific papers
Essay (Montaigne and Bacon)
Argumentative paper
It dawned on people that just because you can speak does not mean you can write –writing was a means, not an end
By 1800 writing has become an end – no one had thought about teaching writing
Once rhetoric came to be studied in grammar school, it became a textbook market. Many people wrote them, including Adam Smith and Hobbes – not that interested in rhetoric, just wanted to cash in.
After Vico
Rhetoric becomes composition but always maintains an oral performance fiction
Periodic literature written like “conversations”- epistolary novels
Classical Rhetoric now fragments into different genres. The speech becomes other genres:
Sermons (big sellers)
Storytelling
Letter writing
Scientific papers
Essay (Montaigne and Bacon)
Argumentative paper
It dawned on people that just because you can speak does not mean you can write –writing was a means, not an end
By 1800 writing has become an end – no one had thought about teaching writing
Once rhetoric came to be studied in grammar school, it became a textbook market. Many people wrote them, including Adam Smith and Hobbes – not that interested in rhetoric, just wanted to cash in.
Works Cited
Vico, Giambattista. On the Study Methods of Our Time. Trans. Elio Gianturco. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.
External Links
Schaeffer, John D. Sensus communis: Vico, Rhetoric, and the Limits of Relativism. Duke UP, 1990.
- - -. “Vico's Rhetorical Model of the Mind: ‘Sensus Communis’ in the ‘De nostri temporis studiorum Ratione.’” Philosophy & Rhetoric 14.3 (1981): 152-67.
G. Vico Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Entry: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vico/
Vico, Giambattista (1668-1744)
"The Eulogizer of Eloquence" - Elio Gianturco, Introduction to On the Study Methods of our TimeTable of Contents
He spent most of his professional life as Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Naples. He was trained in jurisprudence, but read widely in Classics, philology, and philosophy, all of which informed his highly original views on history, historiography, and culture. His thought is most fully expressed in his mature work, the Scienzia Nuova or The New Science. In his own time, Vico was relatively unknown, but from the nineteenth century onwards his views found a wider audience and today his influence is widespread in the humanities and social sciences.
Definition of Rhetoric
The role of eloquence is to persuade; an orator is persuasive when he calls forth in his hearers the mood which he desires.What is eloquence by wisdom ornately and copiously delivered in words appropriate to the common opinion of all mankind?
Persuasion may occur through the following formula:
Corporeal images --> Love --> Belief --> Passion --> Breaking the will
Reader Notes
Descartes vs. Vico
- Methodic Doubt (I don’t believe anything is true, no probability)
- Geometric Logic – step by step, simple to complex
- Scholars of Descarte argue over “simple idea” – is “a=a” an idea or a tautology
- No metaphor – saying something “is” another is impossible – metaphor is at best decoration (unnecessary) and at worst a lie
- Anything you say with metaphor you can say without it
this is whole point of Franco-Italian debateWorks Cited
Vico, Giambattista. On the Study Methods of Our Time. Trans. Elio Gianturco. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.External Links
Schaeffer, John D. Sensus communis: Vico, Rhetoric, and the Limits of Relativism. Duke UP, 1990.- - -. “Vico's Rhetorical Model of the Mind: ‘Sensus Communis’ in the ‘De nostri temporis studiorum Ratione.’” Philosophy & Rhetoric 14.3 (1981): 152-67.
G. Vico Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Entry: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vico/